This I Believe

I believe that life is what you make of it. Each day is only as good as you make it. When I was younger, every time I would come home and be down from having a bad day, my dad would always say that your day is what you make it. He would tell me that I have control over how my day is. This is something that has stuck with me for years now, and every time I am having a bad day I hear his words in the back of my mind.

What my dad was saying is that it is your decision on whether or not it will be bad or good. You decide how you live your life whether you want to realize it or not. Our lives are reflections of how we react to situations. Every action has a reaction, and every reaction has a consequence. Things will rarely work out the way that you would like them to in life, but it is how you take that, that shapes who you are. There are times in life when things are going to be rough and you will think that it is hard to get by. But those who count their losses and try to move on will always be the ones who have good lives.

Life is too short and too complicated to live in ruins. You have to find the good things in life to make the bad things not look so bad. What my dad told me should apply to everyone. Yes it may be raining and you may have spilled something on your shirt, but try and make the best of it. A person that can do this will have a good life regardless of the hardships dealt to them.

There are too many things to be thankful for to have a bad life. Be grateful that you woke up this morning and were given a chance to start fresh. Every day is a new day and it is up to you to decide how that day will be. Make the best of your day and the best of your life because you only have one. I believe that life is a gift and you should be grateful for it every day, and that you should make the best of every second of your day.

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Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.